


Missing

by IChallengeMyFate (Ealdremen)



Series: Missing Link [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-14 08:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3404264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ealdremen/pseuds/IChallengeMyFate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin has vanished from the world, but steadily, time marches on independent of whether or not Lucina is able to match its pace. Now that there is essentially a missing piece of the chain, she must find her own place in a timeline where, by all accounts, she should not exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Together

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially part 2A of "Missing Link" -- 2B being the other half and companion piece, "Link". Both these divergent timelines, each splitting off from a single decision, will parallel each other in different ways, and reading both of them is essentially reading the whole story. Despite AO3's categorical insistence otherwise, "Missing" does not take place before "Link," nor does it have to be read first.

Together, Robin had told her, they could find a better future – one for both of them. When the war was over, they could be together. Grima would be gone, and together, they could seek out new lands. They could visit Ylisstol on their travels, see how Chrom and this timeline's infant Lucina were doing. After that, they could drop in to visit Basilio and Flavia, see who was currently the ruling Khan and what new champions they had selected for the upcoming tournament. All of the Shepherds would be there. They could visit them – together.

And when Robin, wounded and battered and hardly able to stand, had insisted on sacrificing herself to stop Grima, it was Lucina who held her upright. Robin had said not to stop her – that this was what she had to do. Lucina had only responded:

“Together.”

Together, they staggered towards Grima's avatar, facing down the scourge of Lucina's future. The woman who was Robin and yet also not Robin had stared at them with undisguised hatred and malice. Red eyes bore into them, but together, they stood against her.

Lucina held Robin's arm steady as she drew her sword. Clasping the sword's hilt along with her, their fingers entwined, they moved as one. The blade rushed at Grima's prone form, stabbing through the avatar's body and into the very body of the dragon they stood on. The Fell Dragon's cry of pain rang in Lucina's ears long after it ended. She held tight to Robin, as though by sheer will, fate could be defied.

But her fingers felt only the sword's hilt, the warmth of Robin's grip fading all too rapidly. Still hunched over as though bearing Robin's weight, she stared at the painfully blue sky. The world was at peace, just as Robin had said it would be. Dimly, she could hear someone calling her name, but it wasn't Robin.

Together, they defeated Grima, but together, they did not leave that battle.


	2. What Remains

News spread rather quickly of Robin's disappearance; no one asked why Lucina was by herself more often, or why there was talk of if Morgan would be a capable replacement for Robin, should Ylisse get into another war. Lucina wasn't particularly sure why she expected it to be something she would have to explain to people. Equally uncertain was if that made it easier or harder, the way that people would out of the blue try to offer their condolences as they made the long journey back to their homes.

“There will be no tale greater than Robin's,” Owain had promised her. He had a stack of parchment riddled with crossed-out lines and exclamation points. “Cynthia has been proof-reading it for me. She agrees.”

He didn't mention the tearstains on the parchment, nor did Lucina ask.

Frederick was also a much more common sight now. He hovered around her tent in particular, asking frequently if she needed anything – an extra blanket, did she know Maribelle was making tea and wouldn't mind such polite company, if Lucina had any preference for what they made for dinner, and no, don't mind the chores, someone else will handle it.

When they pitched camp due to an oncoming rainstorm, Inigo and Brady asked if she wanted to see a performance, since they had quite a bit of spare time before night fell. It was a new dance that Olivia and Inigo had been collaborating on, and Brady had toiled away on the music for months. At this point, its quality would rival the finest of noble dances performed in Castle Ylisstol's halls, according to them.

“Perhaps it'll bring a smile back to your lovely face?” Inigo had hazarded with a tentative grin.

Lucina declined and excused herself. As she walked through the camp, she passed Yarne and Noire. Perhaps she had interrupted them mid-conversation, for they halted and glanced at her. Noire kept fiddling with the hem of her green shirt, and Yarne seemed to shrink away from her gaze. Lucina gave them a curt nod.

“If anyone has need of me,” Lucina said, keeping her voice steady, “tell them I'll return soon. I won't go far.”

The two of them shared an uneasy look, but they both nodded slowly.

“A...Alright,” said Yarne. Lucina kept walking, and she heard him call out behind her, “Stay safe!”

It wasn't until the edge of the camp that she encountered anyone else. Gerome, standing next to his wyvern, stood guard. He was quiet save for the occasional clink in his armor when he moved, but the drake rumbled with a low, almost purring-like sound at Lucina's approach. Gerome maintained his silence as she passed, but Lucina was certain he was watching her as she departed and ascended the hill near where they had set up camp.

In the evening sun, the dull red glow fading away all too quickly, the wind swept through the grass. It billowed through her cape, and it masked her heavy footsteps as she reached the summit. From up here, she could see the Shepherds milling about their business down below. It was easy to pick out Cordelia's starkly red hair as she carried a stack of crates to somewhere more sheltered in preparation for the rain. Severa trailed after her, nothing in hand but likely lecturing her mother for constantly trying to do all of the work around the campsite. A crow was circling overhead, probably over Henry's tent. Lucina thought she could also spot Sully and Stahl hitching up their horses for the night, and although she couldn't see them, she could easily imagine Frederick now fretting over Chrom and Lissa now that Lucina wasn't around.

Everything was all too normal in Robin's absence.

Lucina stood there, watching them, realizing that she hadn't had a particular purpose in leaving camp. It almost felt like a vestigial remnant of when Robin would suggest they watch the stars, or when Lucina would pull Robin away from camp to force her into not overworking herself.

Her knees buckled beneath her, and Lucina fell to the ground.

No, that was wrong. Nothing was normal. Before they had left to confront Grima, Lucina was capable of turning invisible among the Shepherds. Certainly, she was never anonymous among them, but she could occupy herself with training or helping tidy things up around camp, and no one would hurriedly intervene and tell her to rest.

Her head leaned back. The night was approaching now. The light from the sun was all but gone. The stars would emerge one by one, and, gods, hadn't Tiki once said that all of her friends were now stars in the night sky? Would Robin be there, watching over her? Or had her twisted fate denied her even that? Had she just vanished, as though she had never existed?

“Mother?”

Lucina stiffened. Slowly, she turned her head. A young man wearing a coat similar to Robin's own, his messy hair sticking out altogether too much like Robin's own when she had one too many sleepless nights and forgot to brush it. Everything about him was so much like Robin, except for the deep blue color of his hair.

“I apologize, Morgan,” Lucina managed. She swallowed, ashamed. “...I... didn't notice you there.”

“I just got here,” said Morgan. He visibly hesitated, and he asked, “Can... Can I sit with you?”

Lucina nodded. Morgan plopped down next to her, the grass audibly crunching beneath him. Looking at him again, Lucina turned her gaze to where the night's first stars were beginning to shine, high above their heads.

“I decided to start keeping a journal,” Morgan said suddenly, causing Lucina to glance back to him. Reaching into the inside of his coat, he pulled out a small, leatherbound book. “I don't want to lose my memory again, and Mom will want to know what happened while she was gone.”

“...That's very thoughtful of you, Morgan,” said Lucina.

She wasn't sure whether she ought to say that Robin _will_ enjoy reading it or _would_ have liked to read it. One was too distant and impossible; the other was too final and fatalistic to say to such a hopeful boy.

Morgan wistfully stared at the journal, tracing over it with his finger. “Maybe if I keep writing, my memories of you will come back, too.”

What kind of memories, Lucina wondered? Memories of the future they had left behind with Robin's decision to vanquish Grima for good? Had that been the future all along Morgan had come from – one where somehow, Lucina and Robin had a child and raised him in a peaceful future?

Images flashed through her mind, as though she were Morgan reclaiming what he lost rather than ruminating on what she would never have – Lissa doting over a young Morgan, eager to spoil him. Bringing him to libraries and archives, watching him stare, enraptured, at how many books there were all in one place. A child who sought to emulate both his mothers by donning one's coat and grabbing hold of a sword to mimic the other.

Sitting atop a hill, watching the stars – but with three rather than two.

Her hands clenched at her sides, bunching the grass into her fists, and she set her jaw. Lucina's breath was sharp and drawn in, and she could feel her composure breaking as she futilely tried to chase away the thoughts.

“I think it's better than hitting my head against a wooden post,” Morgan babbled, trying to fill the silence. “Something in my memory might be triggered by something I write down... Laurent said that he read sometimes it seems the body doesn't forget, even if the mind does... or something like that, I think....”

“Morgan...”

“Yes?” Morgan looked over to her. “Mother, was it something I said? Don't cry–”

“I am n–” Lucina touched underneath her eyes. “...I am.”

She gave a resigned sigh, and she pulled her knees to her chest. What she wouldn't have given for one of Gerome's masks right now.

“Forgive me. These past days have been difficult,” she murmured.

Morgan leaned down to look her in the eye. His sad smile was too much like Robin's. “Me too. But we still have each other, right?”

Lucina shakily nodded. Of course... She had been neglecting Morgan, hadn't she? Of course he would feel the loss as profoundly as she did. After all, he only remembered Robin – nothing else from before they found him. He had lost his entire world.

“I just... I don't get why she'd go.” Morgan's smile faded, and he also copied Lucina's posture, resting his head on his knees. The journal laid at his side. “I thought after we got rid of Grima, we could all live together... That's what Mom said...”

Lucina closed her eyes tightly, willing the tears to stop. The least she could do was be someone Morgan could rely on. Someone he could turn to for strength and confidence, someone who could be a parent to him in Robin's absence. But even that mask of stoicism had failed her.

“...I know, Morgan.” The tears continued. “I know.”


End file.
